Bill against outsourcing of call centers gets 106 co-sponsors
For the quarter ended March 2012, project announcements stood at Rs 2,48,300 crore, a drop of 28 per cent over the corresponding period last year.
A Congressional bill that bars the US companies outsourcing call center jobs from receiving federal grants and loans now has over 100 co-sponsors, its promoter has said.
The US Call Center and Consumer Protection Act, introduced in the US House of Representatives by Congressman Tim Bishop, now has as many as 106 lawmakers as its co-sponsors.
In a statement, Bishop hoped this would compel a hearing on the legislation in the Committee on Energy and Commerce. The US Call Center and Consumer Protection Act, if passed by the Congress and signed into law, would require the US Department of Labor to track firms that move call center jobs overseas; the firms would then become ineligible for any direct or indirect federal loans or loan guarantees for five years.
"The provision is partially a response to the practice of companies taking millions in incentives from local taxpayers to open call centers in the US, only to off-shore their operations a short time later and leave local communities devastated and still paying the bill," Bishop said. The bill also requires overseas call centre employees to disclose their location to US consumers and gives customers the right to be transferred to a US-based call centre upon request.